D3.1 Delivers the Gigs – but Does Anyone Want Them?

Denver -- CNG2019 -- No single application today encourages consumers to buy gigabit home-network subscriptions, but as all tech professionals know that day soon will arrive -- and a growing base of operators rely on DOCSIS 3.1 as the foundation for 10G and beyond.

That so-called killer app could be video-based; it may well be virtual reality, augmented reality or perhaps a blend of AR and VR, plus a little real-reality for good measure. It might be a game where instead of wandering the streets seeking oddly shaped creatures, players skim through books looking for gerunds. Doubtful, but that too would use a lot of bandwidth. It may meld together audio and IoT, a household's ongoing shopping and to-do list with payment methods that require various forms of authentication and security, along with storage and backup. Most likely it's something nobody's talking about publicly yet.

While MSOs may not know what subscribers will do with 1 gig, participants on a Cable Next-Gen panel, "Welcome to 10G: Why DOCSIS May Never Die," agreed it's vital they (and the entire cable industry) deploy 10G or Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1 to enable any and everything consumers and small to midsize businesses wish to do via their connection to the Internet, to WiFi and the world at large.

It reminded panelist Jon Pederson, chief technology officer at Midco, of an adage about when it's best to plant a tree. The answer: 20 years ago. When is the second-best time to plant a tree? Today. If operators wait for use cases, they will be too late for their operations to survive, failing themselves, their employees and customers, he said. All subscribers won't want 10 Gbps just, as not everyone wants 1 Gbps today, said Pederson, adding that about 3% of Midco subscribers opted onto its gigabit service since the primarily rural provider began offering it in 2017. Likewise, not all subscribers choose an operator's security service, pay-TV or OTT offering, or other service, he said.

"I think we're planting a tree for the next 10, 20 years," Pederson said. " 'Need' is one of those words that gets tossed around a lot. It's not need; it's 'want.' We need to provide that spectrum, and the highest level for a subset of our customers."

Likewise a small percentage of Charter Communications subscribers have adopted 1 Gbps so far, but the MSO only finished fully deploying D3.1 last year, Steve Williams, vice president of DOCSIS at Charter, told the CNG2019 audience on Wednesday morning.

Operators want to reduce subscriber calls; they're expensive and time-consuming. Educating help-desk respondents so they then can share information about wired versus wireless with callers can turn into new revenue or a stickier relationship, said Pederson.

"We haven't so much stepped across the threshold as we've been pushed across the threshold," he said. "There's an uptick in customer calls but I see that as an opportunity. That's how we treat it."

Deutsche Telekom just signed an infrastructure project with the Gigabit Region Stuttgart, home to 174 municipalities and almost 3 million people, one of many partnerships the German operator has inked in its bid to grow revenue and business.

Mobile and cable operators represented half the managed SD-WAN services market share in this fast-growing space, while other broadband providers such as ISPs and satellite operators also appeared on Vertical Systems Group's ranking.

By slashing subscriber pricing by more than $30 billion annually, Low Earth Orbit satellite companies led by Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk as well as OneWeb have the potential to usher in a whole new era of broadband.

In this insightful Light Reading radio show, Kurt Raaflaub, Head of Strategic Solutions Marketing, will outline the key service provider challenges, deployment considerations, next-gen Gigabit technologies, and service models to win market share in the rapidly growing MDU market.

The MDU market continues to face fierce competition among service providers due to tech-savvy residents (i.e., millennials), demand from building owners and management companies, plus the favorable economics of bulk contracts. However, no MDUs are the same, so service providers must use multiple technologies and inconsistent deployment models, increasing operational complexity and rollout costs.

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In this Broadband World News and ADTRAN webinar, Kurt Raaflaub, Head of Strategic Solutions Marketing, will highlight emerging MDU broadband Internet trends and challenges. In addition, Kurt will outline the next-generation service creation and delivery platform, built on open standards, that allows service providers to connect millions of underserved MDUs, enables creation of user-driven services, and reduces operational complexity and costs.

Plus, special guest, Alice Lawson, Broadband and Cable Program Manager for the City of Seattle, will discuss Seattle’s B4B-Build For Broadband initiative that addresses best practices in planning for MDU telecommunication infrastructure.